Tag: anonymity

“That’s censorship,” many of the commenting readers howled in response to PJStar editor Dennis Anderson’s post about why the paper’s web site will now use only Facebook authentication before posting reader comments going forward. While freedom of the press allows anyone to set up their own press and say whatever they want, I don’t recall that freedom guaranteeing one’s right to free use of someone else’s press to voice their opinion. If a person wants to be an anonymous pamphleteer, they have many options ranging from Blogger to WordPress to Twitter.

Anonymity has its place, as every journalist that has ever cited an anonymous source knows, but editorial commentary has always been held to a higher standard. Long before the Internet, newspapers vetted letters to the editor to make sure that a person was who they claimed to be. Not every letter to the editor was published, but a representative cross section was shared with the readership to show the various sides of an issue. Using Facebook to authenticate readers who want to comment seems no different than using the standards that have always existed in journalism. I personally am more likely to comment on an online article if it is using Facebook for authentication — and I think the discourse on pjstar.com will benefit significantly as a result of this change.

If you want to see what happens when anonymity goes awry, check out the documentary “Truth in Numbers: Everything According to Wikipedia.” (Amazon: $2.99 rental). I am a big fan of wikis, but feel like wikis get a bad rap because of Wikipedia–and the problem with Wikipedia isn’t that it’s a wiki–it’s that it’s anonymous. If Wikipedia started requiring Facebook authentication, many criticisms of the site would go away.

If someone really feels an anonymous viewpoint needs to be heard in response to an article, email the author. Journalists are not against anonymity–they protect it more than any other profession I know of–but when anonymity encourages reckless, drive-by commentary, the discourse is ruined. I couldn’t stand the reader comments on pjstar.com, which is why I would never waste my time reading them. Maybe now, that can change.